On 20 January, navy officer Sergey Lyutov, with support from Futures Telecom and a group of volunteers, launched Navy.ru (later known as the Central Naval Portal — FLOT.com) along with a number of companion sites: gazeta.navy.ru, shiphistory.navy.ru, grinda.navy.ru, militarism.navy.ru, vkesimo.navy.ru, library.navy.ru, neva.navy.ru, monitoring.navy.ru.

Updates were suspended after the dot-com crash.

Work began on bringing Navy.ru back, and an editorial team was assembled.

Navy.ru relaunched, timed to Submariner’s Day on 19 March.

Launch of Rasstrel.ru, the official site of the naval writer Alexander Pokrovsky.

FLOT.com replaced Navy.ru as the Central Naval Portal’s main domain, and the companion sites moved from third-level to second-level domains: navylib.ru, sailhistory.ru, gazetam.ru, grinda.info, milit.ru and others.

Launch of FlotProm.ru, a naval defence-industry outlet aimed at decision-makers.

A series of exclusive interviews with fleet commanders was published.

The editorial team carried out its first investigation, “Billions for the English Phoenix”.

An international investigation, “Kursk 2.0”, examined whether the loss of the submarine Kursk could happen again. The portal’s editor-in-chief addressed the closing session of the Defence Ministry’s interagency expert group, convened to resolve disagreements over the deep-water diving complex.

Launch of the news agency Voennoe.RF, built on fact-based journalism. Volunteers played a large part in getting it started.

Launch of Mil.Estate, an outlet covering military mortgages. The group delivered the most extensive coverage yet of the International Maritime Defence Show.

Large-scale coverage of the Army 2016 international military-technical forum. Mil.Press organised #МиллионБоевойПодруге, a national competition for service families.

Across Russia’s three largest exhibitions — IMDS, MAKS and Army — Mil.Press journalists produced 329 exclusive stories. Over the year the newsroom focused on submarine rescue and construction of the Project 21300 vessels, drawing responses from the Defence Ministry leadership and officials of the State Duma and Federation Council.

The Mil.Press media group marked its 20th anniversary. The analytical department was spun out as a separate unit supporting industrial diversification.

Of the 420 media covering the Army forum, the world’s largest exhibition of its kind, Mil.Press was the only one granted Priority Information Partner status.

Launch of the Single Day of Expertise, a quarterly single-subject event at which manufacturers present dual-use products while recognised industry experts (the Expert Council) and customer representatives (the Supervisory Council) examine them in detail, making the customer’s choice easier. The same year saw the launch of Video Diary of Innovation at the Army forum, a series of broadcasts on the innovative products of the most advanced defence-industry plants, aimed at prime contractors’ management and the Defence Ministry leadership.

Video Diary of Innovation broadcasts ran at the Army 2021 and Army 2022 forums and the Neva 2021 exhibition.

Video Diary of Innovation broadcasts ran at the Army 2023 forum and the Neva 2023 exhibition, alongside the dedicated project “Video Diary of Innovation: 2023 results”.

Launch of Otraslevoe.RF, an outlet covering civilian manufacturers of high-technology products.

AI tools were built into the newsroom’s daily workflow: initial processing of material now runs with their help, while every fact is still re-checked by a journalist.